Horse Racing News

Shakhimat registered his first stakes win in more than 20 months when pulling an 11-1 upset Saturday in the 39th running of the Grade 3, $100,000 Tropical Turf at Gulfstream Park in south Florida.

The Stronach Group sold nine of the 12 slots to its Pegasus World Cup prior to a Friday evening deadline for the transactions and will buy the other three $1 million slots with the intent of marketing them to late comers in the six weeks until the race.

Of all the generous donations descending upon Del Mar in the wake of the San Luis Rey Downs fire evacuation, few rang with more of a sense of pure community than the van load of stable supplies that pulled up to the backstretch late last Tuesday.

The amazing Page McKenney returns to south Florida for just the second time in his long career when he takes on eight rivals in Saturday's $100,000 Harlan's Holiday Stakes at Gulfstream Park.

If required, I, and a lot of other folks I'm sure, could make a compelling case in defense of the majority stewards' decision to disqualify Solomini from first in Saturday's Grade 1 Los Alamitos CashCall Futurity and place him third.

Solomini finished first in Saturday's Grade 1 Los Alamitos CashCall Futurity at Los Alamitos, but was disqualified and placed third behind stablemate McKinzie and Instilled Regard for causing interference in the final sixteenth.

Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. completed one of the most memorable days of his career, and one of the most memorable days in the 51-year history of the Clasico Internacional del Caribe, when he guided Mexico's Jala Jala to a win in the $300,000 Clasico del Caribe.

Approximately 25 race horses stabled at the San Luis Rey training center were killed as a wildfire in Southern California engulfed eight barns on Thursday.

A wildfire that struck San Luis Rey Downs in San Diego County on Thursday killed a number of thoroughbred racehorses stabled at the training center. Trainers estimated at least a dozen horses had died, but think the total may grow higher.

They will run the Los Alamitos CashCall Futurity and the Starlet Stakes on Saturday, although participation apparently was neither encouraged nor required.